1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an adhesive tape joining method and an adhesive tape joining apparatus in which the adhesive tape is joined to only a ring frame that is used in processes of manufacturing chips from a semiconductor wafer or joined over the ring frame and the semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 5, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as a “wafer”) W has a surface with a circuit pattern formed thereon, and a protective tape PT is joined to the surface of the wafer so as to perform back grinding. An adhesive tape DT joined to a back face of a ring frame f is joined to the wafer W. The wafer W held in this state is transported as a mount frame MF. Various processes are performed on the wafer W in subsequent steps.
The following method is known for joining an adhesive tape to a ring frame.
An adhesive tape is supplied to a back face side of a ring frame. A joining roller that pivots around a center of the ring frame then presses the adhesive tape, thereby joining the adhesive tape to a back face of the ring frame. Subsequently, a cutter blade in a circular plate shape pivots about the center of the ring frame to cut out the adhesive tape along the ring frame. See JP2005-159243A.
The circular adhesive tape joined to the back face of the ring frame may partially be separated in a periphery direction depending on its joined condition. Some wrinkles may also occur in the adhesive tape, which may cause the adhesive tape to partially float from the back face of the ring frame. When the adhesive tape having such partial separation is joined to the wafer, the wafer tends to be in an unstable position. As a result, in a subsequent process of cutting a wafer for every chip, such a problem may arise that the cut chips are scattered.